Small-town star landed big auditions
Dworak tried out for Bucks, Packers in same month
It will go down as one of the most memorable months in the life of Tim Dworak.
In a span of two weeks in July 2003, the former Kewaunee basketball star had a tryout with both the Milwaukee Bucks and Green Bay Packers.
Oh, and he also hung up the phone on former Packers coach Mike Sherman.
His three-day tryout with the Bucks came after the 6-foot-7 forward had completed one of the best basketball careers in the history of UW-Oshkosh, where he still ranks second on the alltime scoring list with 1,999 points and fifth with 784 rebounds.
The two-time Wisconsin Intercollegiate Athletic Conference player of the year always will be known for one of the biggest shots in program history, when as a junior he buried a threepointer at the buzzer to beat UWWhitewater in the WIAC title game and send his team to the NCAA Division III tournament.
After Dworak led UWO to the Elite Eight the following season, the Bucks sent a letter to the school’s athletic office addressed to men’s basketball coach Ted Van Dellen.
It formally invited his star pupil to a free-agent minicamp.
Dworak never had thought about earning a tryout with an NBA team, not with all the athleticism Division I and II players offered.
He arrived at the camp at the Cousins Center in St. Francis, one of 16 players hoping to impress former Bucks scout Chris Gilmartin, who scouted Dworak for one game during his senior season.
When Dworak was younger, he rode around Kewaunee shouting with confidence to anybody who would listen that he was going to play in the NBA. But on his first day with the Bucks, confidence turned into intimidation.
“One hundred percent,” he said. “I’m going in there pretty scared. You drive up and you walk in and it has the Bucks’ logo and the NBA symbol, and it’s like, ‘Oh, my God, this is really happening.’ ”
During the first three-hour practice session, Dworak went up against players bigger, faster and stronger. He felt it would take him at least six months to acclimate to the speed . It was like going from Kewaunee to the college game all over again.
The Bucks signed two players at the end of camp: former Detroit guard Desmond
Ferguson and Colorado forward and Milwaukee native Jamahl Mosley. Ferguson played seven games for the Portland Trailblazers in 2003-04. Mosley never played a game but has been an assistant coach in the NBA the last 14 seasons.
“I don’t think he was overwhelmed,” Gilmartin said after the camp about Dworak. “I thought he picked up things well. He could have shot the ball a little better, but he is an exceptionally skilled player.”
Dworak accepted an offer from a team in Sweden to play professionally and dropped out of school for a semester while he waited for the contract to be sent. But within a week, the team found another player to sign but didn’t inform Dworak.
It was the end of his basketball career, and it left a sour taste for a bit.
He worked as a bartender and in construction during his semester off before earning a teaching degree. He now teaches at Columbus High School, where he also serves as the girls basketball coach.
Wait, the Packers just called?
Although the Bucks’ invite surprised him, it at least made sense. But when he received a phone call from former Packers scout Marc Lillibridge a short time later, he was so confused he figured it must be a joke.
Dworak hadn’t played football since his freshman year at Kewaunee, but the Packers were interested in what he might provide as a tight end. The NFL had found success with college basketball players who converted to the position.
Tony Gonzalez was a Pro Bowler for the Atlanta Falcons by 2003 after playing football and basketball at the University of California, while the San Diego Chargers signed Kent State forward and future NFL star Antonio Gates as an undrafted free agent a few months before Dworak’s tryout.
“I was sitting around playing video games after a day working on the roof, and he introduced himself and said they wanted to bring me in for a tryout,” Dworak said of his conversation with Lillibridge.
Lillibridge told him Sherman would call in the next few days.
Sure, whatever. This wasn’t real, he thought.
When Sherman did call, Dworak hung up on the Packers’ coach, now firmly convinced it was a prank even though the caller ID showed it was from the team.
“Luckily enough, he called me back,” said Dworak, who was a quarterback his one season at Kewaunee. “He said, ‘Hey, I think we got disconnected.’ I was like, ‘Oh, crap. I think we did get disconnected.’
“I listened to him as he was kind of saying the athleticism of basketball players turn out to be good football players. I was kind of shell-shocked after that.”
Dworak grew up a diehard Packers fan. His parents still own the season tickets they had when he attended games as a child.
He did his best to prepare for the tryout, receiving tips from football players at Oshkosh. He never had run a 40-yard dash.
They explained how to run routes, and being an athlete his entire life, he could pull the plays off even if they weren’t precise.
Brett Favre didn’t throw passes to him, but whoever it was, Dworak felt like he was throwing just as hard as the Hall of Fame gunslinger.
“Not being a football player, I didn’t know what to expect,” he said. “They said the best thing that would come out of it was being a practice player. I said practice players make more money than I’m making now. I wouldn’t mind getting my butt kicked for that.”
He received a letter from the Packers afterward. They thanked him for trying out but said they were going in another direction.
Good times
Still, almost 20 years later, July 2003 always is fun to reflect on.
“That’s a story I can talk to with my friends about, because they experienced it with me,” Dworak said. “It’s something people ask me about every once in a while.
“Stories people tell my kids, they ask if it’s serious. … They are still young enough and naïve enough not to believe it. Like, ‘You’re my dad, there is no way you could have done that.’ ”
Dworak arrived home after a long summer day in 2003. He spent the previous hours on a roof taking off three layers of shingles and a layer of cedar shakes.
“I come back all full of dirt and grime from the day, and I walk into my house we are renting,” Dworak said. “One of my roommates goes, ‘Hey, did the Brewers call you yet?’
“I just shook my head and went up to shower.”